Saakashvili calls on his party in Georgia to introduce gender quotas

TBILISI, DFWatch–Mikheil Saakashvili, the former Georgian president who is governor of Odessa in Ukraine, has advised his party home in Georgia to have 50 percent women on the election list for the upcoming parliamentary election, which will be held later this year.

Saakashvili wrote on Facebook that the National Movement always has initiated new trends and should have new initiatives for the upcoming election.

“The first thing would be having 50 percent women on the party’s election list, which would underline the role of women in Georgian society. It will objectively encourage refreshment and prepare us for inevitable victory in October’s election,” he writes, expressing confidence that the UNM party will easily find honorable women candidates and introduce them to the society.

For more than a year, groups in Georgia have been campaigning to bring in gender quotas in parliament.

On March 8 last year, the international women’s day, a group of feminists organized a demonstration in the streets of Tbilisi demanding just that.

The movement renewed its call during this year’s protests, but parliament has not yet considered the quota issue, despite having two bills already submitted. The first one was submitted by a women’s group and the other one by members of parliament from the Georgian Dream coalition.

There are currently 18 women among the 150 members of parliament.

The ruling Georgian Dream coalition has not yet announced what its policy will be in this regard for the upcoming election.